September

Deloitte Comment Letter Image

Deloitte comment letter on IASB's annual improvements proposals

05 Sep, 2011

Deloitte's IFRS Global Office has submitted a letter of comment on IASB Exposure Draft ED/2011/2 Improvements to IFRSs.

We welcome the IASB's continuing efforts to deal with certain amendments to IFRSs in an efficient and effective manner and are pleased to note that the proposed amendments address discrete areas where differences in interpretation or possible conflicts between IFRSs have been identified.

The following is an excerpt from the letter:

We are generally in agreement with the intentions of the proposed amendments, but are concerned that some amendments (in particular, those to IFRS 1 First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards) may have unintended consequences. These unintended consequences arise principally from ambiguous drafting which... include inconsistencies between the Basis of Conclusions and the actual wording of the amendment.

In addition, we note that the amendments introduce a number of terms (for example, 'required comparative period' and 'additional comparative information') for which a formal definition is not provided. This could also contribute to a lack of clarity over the scope and effect of the proposed amendments. The use of clearly defined terms will become more important as IFRSs are applied in new jurisdictions as terms in common use in one jurisdiction may be unfamiliar in another and also because any lack of clarity is likely to be exacerbated upon translation of IFRSs into another language.

Comments on ED/2011/2 close on 21 October 2011. Click for our Comment Letter on ED/2011/2 (PDF 42k).

FRC Image

FRC acts to increase transparency in corporate reporting

01 Sep, 2011

Further to our earlier story, the UK's Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has held discussions over the last six months with companies, investors, auditors and other interested parties following the release of its discussion paper, Effective Company Stewardship: Enhancing Corporate Reporting and Audit, in January 2011. The FRC has recently issued two additional reports following these discussions.

The first, Boards and Risk: A Summary of Discussions with Companies, Investors and Advisers, summarises these discussions held over the last six months. The second, Effective Company Stewardship: Next Steps, outlines the responses received by the FRC to its original discussion paper and summarises the future actions that the FRC intends to take. In these reports, the FRC notes that there is one common issue to be addressed: "audit is not meeting user and/or public expectations and . . . there is a need for greater transparency about the judgements made by management and auditors in the course of preparing and auditing financial statements".

Click for (all links to FRC website):

 

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